Cheap Switch (Music) (Golden Earring) Price

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Customer Reviews of Switch

Great album
This is a classic GE album, and might even be their best. Ce Soir (Kill Me) obviously gets a lot attention because it's a cool song. It starts out calm and mysterious, and builds up with a nice intensity. Not to skimp on classiness, the band throws in cellos and strings to flavor the song. Lead singer Barry Hay sounds reminiscient of Mick Jagger at times.

Another great song is Tons of Time. This was the opening track for Side 2 in the record days. It sort of has a reggae-rock feel to it. Love is a Rodeo and The Switch are also noteworthy. But really all the songs are good. The album almost comes across with a bit of a concept album feel too.

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Awesome!
One day, I was busy listening to 'Queen II' on LP when my friend's dad came down and took over the record player. I was ok with this....there was always other time. So he pulled out 'Switch' and started playing the A-side. I was stunned. It was terrific! I must have played that entire A-side until it skipped so bad it was unplayable. 'Love Is A Rodeo' and 'Kill Me (Ce Soir)' are undoubtably some of the best songs I have ever heard.

The only reason I gave this 4 stars was because I wasn't as impressed with the B-side. I mean, it wasn't BAD, but just not as great as the first side...which was, to me, incredible.

If you share the same tastes as me, then go ahead! :)

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Mediocre
I have owned three copies of this album -- once on LP and twice on CD -- and I have always been disappointed by it. After selling it or having it stolen, I seem to buy it at ten-year intervals, half-hoping that I'll find something new and scintillating in 'Switch' that I missed on previous occasions.

But the sad fact is that after 'Moontan', 'Switch' was a terrible let-down, and Golden Earring suddenly had a lot of explaining to do. How could a band something so near-perfect as 'Moontan', with extended singles on Side 1 and the gig-like performances on Side 2, produce something so run-of-the-mill afterwards? Granted, tracks like 'Ce Soir' and 'Troubles' weren't half-bad, but whereas 'Moontan' showcased a band at the summit of achievement and maturity, 'Switch' seemed a retrogressive step, the sort of portfolio put together by a new band struggling to find their own style and form.

I believe Golden Earring always were arch-copyists. If you listen to albums of the time by the likes of Deep Purple, the Who, Argent etc, you can detect traces and influences that feed into this record, and indeed, 'Moontan'. There's nothing wrong with learning from other bands, but I feel Golden Earring should have trusted more in themselves to come up with the goods, rather than look to the US and particularly the UK for the styles they wanted to emulate.

This album claims to be remastered, but there's no strong evidence to my ears. The CD packaging is lamentable: gatefold inlay card, but the inside of the card are used entirely for an ad for other Earring albums on the Red Bullet label. I'm pretty sure the original LP came with a lyric sheet. This version of the CD doesn't even tell you who provided the orchestration, let alone who did the alleged remastering.

Basically what I'm saying is this album is OK, but if you only buy one Golden Earring album, ignore this and all the compilation albums and go straight for 'Moontan'. But make sure you buy the right 'Moontan' -- there is a rogue 'remastered' version that doesn't include all the original tracks.